You can say that again, and again, as spin cycle blows a fuse

Paul Austin

CABINET solidarity is generally a good thing, but this is ridiculous. The final big announcement for 2008 from the Brumby cabinet was last week's $38 billion transport plan. So big was it that it was accompanied by 23 media releases. Yes, 23.

Reading them, a certain similarity becomes apparent. "The Brumby Government is taking action on transport so that Victorians can have the best transport network in Australia," Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky says in the first release under her name. And in the second. And again in the third, and fourth, and so on until her seventh, on extra transit safety police.

That one has been tweaked subtly: "The Brumby Government is taking action on transport, so that Victorians can have the best and safest transport network in Australia." Kosky's releases Nos. 8, 9 and 10 revert to the original wording.

Then we get to Roads Minister Tim Pallas' releases. It seems he agrees with Kosky, not just in general terms but word for word, because the first of his media statements includes the line: "The Brumby Government is taking action on transport so that Victorians can have the best transport network in Australia." So do the next six, and the ninth.

But Pallas release No. 8, on upgrading bike paths, has a subtle addition: "The Brumby Government is taking action on transport, so that Victorians can have the best transport network in Australia — and the most sustainable." You can see why this Government retains a phalanx of media advisers.

All 10 Kosky releases (except the one about the transit police) go on to say: "Delivering the best transport system in Australia will mean Victorians can spend less time commuting and more time with family and friends."

So do Pallas' nine releases, except the one about removing trucks from residential streets around Yarraville, and the one about the bike paths, which contains a mistake: "Delivering the best transport system in Australia will mean Victorians have more can spend less time commuting and more time with family and friends."

Each Kosky release includes this boast: "Our $38 billion action plan also will generate up to 10,000 jobs a year during construction, resulting in more than 100,000 jobs over the life of the plan."

Pallas says exactly the same thing in each of his releases, except the one about the bike paths, the one about getting trucks off the streets of the inner west (which inserts the word "transport" before "action plan"), and the one about the Frankston bypass (which drops the word "also").

Most of Pallas' releases then say: "In tougher global times, the Brumby Government is taking action to deliver thousands of jobs now and to build for our next era of prosperity." So do half of Kosky's. That line also appears in one of their two joint media releases, under Kosky's name. Perhaps she got to say it because she's the more senior minister, at least for now.

(Incidentally, it's not just Labor that plays this game. Ted Baillieu, or at least someone in or around his office, came up with a good line last Thursday about the Government's record on public transport: "A public transport system ought to run like a Swiss watch. But we've got a cuckoo clock. John Brumby's transport system runs like a cuckoo clock." Baillieu's loyal upper house leader, David Davis, was so impressed that he said it again the next day: "Our transport system should work like a Swiss watch. Instead of that, it's working like a cuckoo clock.")

Underneath the tedious rhetoric, many of those 23 media releases on the Brumby transport plan announce welcome projects.

For example, one of the joint Kosky/Pallas releases is about a promise to spend $440 million over the next 12 years to eliminate some level crossings. This is a program that will save not only time but lives.

"With even more train services to be added across the network over coming years and more vehicles expected on key arterial roads, the Government must separate rail and road in key locations," Labor explains. But how many level crossings will be eliminated under this plan? Well, "a number". Which ones? There is not a clue, beyond the first: Springvale Road, Nunawading. How much will that one cost? We are not told, beyond the fact that "the Commonwealth Government has committed $80 million towards the project".

There's one other aspect of the transport plan where detail has evaded the Premier. Asked the cost of the advertising campaign that is on your TV screen right now spruiking the benefits of his blueprint, Brumby replied: "Look, I don't have the exact figure. I think it's somewhere between 1 and 2 million dollars."

Somewhere between 1 and 2 million? This from the Premier who can tell us that over the next 12 years the metro rail tunnel will cost $4.5 billion, the so-called regional rail link $4 billion, the Dingley bypass $80 million, the restoration of passenger rail services to Maryborough $50 million, planning for an outer ring road $10 million, and a study of what to do about Hoddle Street $5 million.

No doubt if Lynne Kosky or Tim Pallas were asked how much the advertising campaign for their transport plan was costing us taxpayers, they'd say the same thing as the Premier. Cabinet solidarity, you see.

Read the original article at TheAge.com.au